02138cam a22002537 4500001000700000003000500007005001700012008004100029100002400070245008700094260006600181490004200247500001900289520101600308530006101324538007201385538003601457690012301493690007401616710004201690830007701732856003801809856003701847w14464NBER20190915085327.0190915s2008 mau||||fs|||| 000 0 eng d1 aScotchmer, Suzanne.10aRisk Taking and Gender in Hierarchiesh[electronic resource] /cSuzanne Scotchmer. aCambridge, Mass.bNational Bureau of Economic Researchc2008.1 aNBER working paper seriesvno. w14464 aNovember 2008.3 aIn a labor market hierarchy, promotions are affected by the noisiness of information about the candidates. I study the hypothesis that males are more risk taking than females, and its implications for rates of promotion and abilities of survivors. I define promotion hierarchies with and without memory, where memory means that promotion depends on the entire history of success. In both types of hierarchies, the surviving risk takers will have lower average ability whenever they have a higher survival rate. Further, even if more risk takers than non risk takers are promoted in the beginning of the hierarchy, that will be reversed over time. The risk takers will eventually have a lower survival rate, but higher ability. As a consequence of these differences, the various requirements of employment law cannot simultaneously be satisfied. Further, if promotion standards are chosen to maximize profit, the standards will reflect gender in ways that are difficult to distinguish from discriminatory intent. aHardcopy version available to institutional subscribers. aSystem requirements: Adobe [Acrobat] Reader required for PDF files. aMode of access: World Wide Web. 7aD63 - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement2Journal of Economic Literature class. 7aJ08 - Labor Economics Policies2Journal of Economic Literature class.2 aNational Bureau of Economic Research. 0aWorking Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research)vno. w14464.4 uhttp://www.nber.org/papers/w1446441uhttp://dx.doi.org/10.3386/w14464